Political Party Manifestos Reform Paradox in Pakistan
Importance of Manifesto
A political party’s manifesto is a manuscript that chalks out a party’s vision, goals, and plans- aligning the aspirations and needs of the public. Commonly, it signifies the policy package a political party uses to attract voters at election time. It also helps form a coalition government process, as political parties are more likely to form a coalition if the policies expressed in their manifestos are similar [1].
The manifesto usually frames the broader policy proposals to address various societal issues. Political parties mostly release it right before the election as a symbol of democratic value. It serves the voters to make informed choices about whom to vote for or not, based on political parties’ ideologies, agendas, and commitments. The political parties commonly make debates, sell their narrative, and engage the public in the electoral process through their intended policy proposals. It helps the voters to make political parties accountable for their promises and proposals.
In the grand auditorium of democracy, a manifesto is the opening act that captivates minds, and fuels discussions. A distinctive manifesto broadly covers the following components [2]:
- An overarching vision of a political party to address core country issues.
- Policy proposals to discourse various issues, i.e., economy, domestic and foreign policy, society, social infrastructure, etc.
- Promises and commitments made by a political party to win public trust, i.e., job creation, salary rise, tax cut, health, education, etc.
- Competing agenda of political parties to showcase their ideology by differentiating them from other political parties.
- Guide voters closest to their ideal policy package and enrich them that how political parties visualise the real world.
A well thought out manifesto significantly impacts the election campaign by influencing the public, particularly the open and swing voters. Along with serving as a yardstick by the electorate and the political parties to measure political parties’ performances against the pledges. The political parties in deep-rooted democratic societies regularly inscribe their policy priorities and plans. However, in countries like Pakistan devoid of such practices, voters are unclear about what manifestos actually are. In the absence of which, most political parties adopt the approach of pleasing the electorate by often making vague commitments and unrealistic promises. Despite knowing that their promises are not practically implementable.
A well-precise manifesto significantly impacts the election campaign by influencing the public, incredibly the open and swing voters. It also serves as a yardstick for a ruling party to measure its performance against pledges. The political parties in deep-rooted democratic societies regularly inscribe their policy priorities and plans. However, in countries like Pakistan, it is unclear to a voter what manifestos actually are. Here, most political parties adopt the approach that the audience is considered willing to buy. Keeping in view, political parties often make vague commitments and unrealistic promises just for the sake of populism despite knowing that their promises are not practically implementable. The coalition government could be another factor where ruling parties compromise their ideologies.
Box 1: Manifesto/Jalsas/Debates – The Missing Link
Pakistan still lacks a systematic approach towards the validation of claims and promises made by political parties during election campaigns.
The only approach in Pakistan’s political setup is holding of rallies and Jalsa’s, by gathering enthusiastic supporters (often paid for) to showcase of strength and power. The whole show revolves around the charismatic leaders making grand promises, and attendees (often bought crowd) cheering in response.
The culture of meaningful debates remains elusive and the conversation revolves around character assassinations of opponents and political vilification, grand promises, etc. Politicians even lack training for meaningful debates and exchange of ideas.
Debates clarify vision, policy, and ideology of the party along with rationalizing the grand promises through cross-questions. However, politicians avoid cross-talks and prefer in holding jalsas.
The economic cost of holding Jalsa’s is very high- above 440 billion rupees in 2018 election. Instead debates cost less and would be more informative.
